The Official swaggerlowdown
avery r. young
Do your pants sit or sag? Why? How does the way a man rock his pants define the human he is? Do you think the way a man wears his pants speaks to his economic status? Do you think the way a man wears his pants is a reflection of his culture? Or his musical taste? Or even his sexuality? Do you think the way in which a man wears his pants has any bearing on whether or not he treats women with respect?
Speaking of which ... What is gender consciousness? Is a woman or girl safe in your presence? Have you ever witnessed an assault on a women and/or girl? What did you do about it? Have you ever publicly harassed anyone? Why or why not?
Some of these questions are often never asked of most men, especially by other men. But these questions are questions in which I have been asked and had to assess my position surrounding them for the past year. Since June 2006, I've worked along with the Chicago's Foundation for Women's Men's Initiative; I have gone into classrooms to speak to young men about misogyny and violence; I have sat on several panels defending Hip Hop's role in society and responsibility to the Black community. And I contend that America's issue with misogyny doesn't start nor end with the Black community and/or Hip Hop. Global misogyny does not start nor end with the corporations that financially back media and pedagogies that allow women to be portrayed and treated with dishonor. I say that the continuum of misogyny in America and around the globe continues because men allow it to. And we do so because being from positions of gender privilege, we have no idea or concern of what it says about the people who we really are.
And even most men who do not overtly disrespect or degrade women believe it's a woman's responsibility not to accept the dishonorable treatment she experiences. They believe a woman should "leave" if a man is beating her; or she should dress "properly" if she doesn't like being smacked on her apple bottom; or she should not "give it up" on the first date if she wants a second one; or it is up to a woman to carry herself in a manner that demands value. This year alone, I have conversed with men who hold these positions. But these same positions are still misogynistic at the core. These same positions are the basis by which men that treat women poorly, do so. These same positions leave us to gather that some women deserve respect while others do not. Most importantly, these positions remove men from any responsibility of re-defining our roles in gender consciousness. Therefore, my challenge to those who harbor these positions is to locate the place where we stop blaming the oppressed for their oppression and press the oppressor to be accountable to change his behavior.
In saying that, a lot of men like to shy away from that "overnight" change figuring that kind of change has to be forced. Rightfully so, most men I know who have done the work of "forcing" change have been assassinated; or are on death row; or live in exile. Their life's work is romanticized by Revolutionaries content with pushing the buttons of discomfort and trivialized by mainstreamers comfortable in their seats of privilege. Yet, as a man, I love this idea of change. I love this idea of change because I know change isn't "forced" at all. Change doesn't have to be forced because change isn't hard. In fact, change is easy because change is time efficient. Change is time efficient because change is immediate. And because change is immediate, there is no reason why change can't be. Fair and equal representation has to exist. Full equality must be more real than ideal. Real equality has to exit the confines of "someday" and enter a freedom called "right now!"
And we must not be naïve. For those men who really - really want change to happen can't wait for the powers to be to become as generous as the tooth fairy. Despite what Sam Cooke sings - change sits. Change sits because change is still. Therefore, we must go to it. So if we want change, we have to continue to march, rally, protest, sign petitions, write letters, call and/or text government officials, vote. We have to become allies always ... always ... always exercise our right to speak. For our speech is our weapon.
And we must use our voice, our weapon to create media, distribute and utilize this media and let it be the catalyst of discussions that will propel folk closer to change. swaggerzine is an initiative setting out to make it known that men who want change exist. swaggerzine wants society to know that men who are allies to women do exist.
So let there be swaggerzine. A web-zine sprouted from the brain child of the Young Chicago Author Gabriel Charles Tyler, who decided that YCA needed a male version of its GirlSpeak. He felt that young men should talk and change and be given a platform to make other folk aware of such talk and change occurring. He spoke to Felicia Rose Chavez who knew that I had been working specifically with matters of gender consciousness during the past year and thought it would a wonderful idea to pair us up. She expressed her idea of us working together to work with other young men of YCA in discussing misogyny and create writings from those discussions. Gabriel would intern and I would be the teaching artist. Gabriel and I see mountains sprouting from sidewalks curbs. So what initially started out as a writing workshop has now become its own movement.
And this is a good thing. Gabriel is a young man who is growing and really making efforts into coming into his own voice and placing himself in a position that will allow other young men to do the same. I can only hope that for him, I am an effective mentor who is committed to seeing this project through to its fruition.
swaggerzine "big-ups" the attitude that exudes from every man. swaggerzine looks to address the ways in which today's urban gender conscious male may dress, think, write, orate, lyric, draw, capture, eat and breathe. This issue's theme deals with our attitudes of masculinity, misogyny and how that carries over into the way we view and treat women in public spaces. And in saying that, Gabriel and I also believe men can not effectively begin to discuss male's views and treatment of women in public spaces without discussing the way in which we as males treat each other in those same spaces. For this reason we decided to implement a discussion regarding how we as men choose to "suit up" our swag.
You may ask how does whether or not a man's pants sag compare to the misogyny and mistreatment of women and my answer to that is - it doesn't compare at all. Women all around the world have been regarded as inferior creatures since Genesis and the sagging of pants amongst men is a recent phenomenon - not to mention confined to a the habits and/or style of a "certain" population. But, the same institutions that keep women earning wages unequal to men is the same institutions that legislates the ticketing and fining of certain "types of men" to exist and be enforced. swaggerzine feel its our duty to shed light and present men who shatter the misconceptions of that allows law makers to equate sagging pants with running a stop sign.
We have polled men -- professors, lawyers, emcees, prisoners and students alike -- as to how they rock their pants. And we asked why? And we found out from the men we polled that men like to be comfortable. And whatever way they rock their pants has no bearing of what type of person they could be, and/or endangerment they may or may not place upon society, and/or offense they may or may not cause to anyone trying hire them, mate with them or enjoy lunch without view of their Phat Farm boxers.
These same men who sag or not, all have expressed their opinions and/or contributed work dealing with how they as men view the way other men view women. And these conversations and contributions have sparked swaggerzine's "safe around me" campaign. This is our initiative to let our sisters of GirlSpeak and all other women know we are not going to compromise their safety when they are in our presence and we will not allow spaces to turn unsafe when we are around. Gabriel and I hope swaggerzine continues to give face and voices to these men and we hope to add a mighty multitude of like-minded individuals to the fold.
The men who contributed to this issue are all brothers who I know do more than just document "pretty," they are brothers who work at being men of honor and living as honest as possible. Does this go to say that any of the men associated with this project are guilt free and/or may never in the future perform some act that one may view as offensive and/or contradicting to the purpose of swaggerzine? No.
I hope it says that we are men who have decided to stop and take personal inventory of our misconceptions, ignorance, strengths, beliefs and privilege in order to check ourselves. It is through this inventory we look to initiate and build community. I have to have faith that we can't be the only brothers who feel that men have to begin to amend the way we view and treat all of those creations who are not ourselves or made in our likeness. I hope through our eyes, voices and hands, we create work and post a web-zine that will challenge men to make their own inventories and flyup their swagger.
Please speak up and join a league of men who are looking to make change and history.